24:2 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



polypus method of division and subdivision the coloring matter is dif- 

 fused through tho solution. 



A more complicated figure, on the above type, is formed by allowing a 

 drop of oil of lavender (from the end of a glass rod) gently to subside beneath 

 the surface of spirits of wine contained in a cylindrical glass six inches 

 high and one inch and a quirter in diameter. Oil oi'cubebs or of cinnamon 

 forms good figures. The oils of turpentine and of juniper, as well as fixed 

 oils, form flat 'spheroids. The appe.irance of the figures depends upon the 

 solubility of the liquid employed. In some cases they are glassy or sac- 

 charine, in others clialky or milky, arising from the el liopten of the essential 

 oils being the first dissolved, while the stearopten is left to do the work 

 of the figure. When a column of benzol was u^ed, many of tiie essential 

 oils formed these opaque white figures. Oil of winter-green, turpentine, 

 camphorated spirit, oil of bitter almonds, &c. formed good figures ; the 

 fixed oils formed discs with waving edges or cup-shaped vessels, which 

 became drawn out in descending. In a column of paraffin oil some re- 

 markable figures were produced with absinthe, neroli, and fusel oils. 

 With the last-named oil the drop first forms a disc bagging downwards, and 

 this almost immediately expands upwards, swells out into a dome or cone, 

 the ring expanding all the time; the point of the cone remains fixed in 

 the liquid, while the lower edge becomes arched at four equidistant points, 

 the edges of the arches beautifully fringed, and lets fall lines with drops 

 at the ends, which form separate cones, each of which becomes arched, 

 and lets down other lines with drops. In this way a figure is produced 

 of great beauty, and with an architectural kind of effect which is very 

 striking. The" duration is also considerable. The texture of the figure 

 is gauze-like and delicate. A number of figures were obtained when a 

 column of turpentine was used; a still larger number in a column of py- 

 roligneous ether, some of which were chalky and very persistent. A drop 

 of water flashed into a ring, descended, and expanded in rolling on its 

 curved axis somewhat after the manner of a bubble of phosphureted hy- 

 drogen bursting in air. In a column of ether those drops that did not 

 immediately enter into solution formed beautiful rolling rings, this was 

 the case with drops of benzol and of the oils of turpentine and cajeput. 

 These liquid rolling rings led to an investigation of the phosphureted 

 hydrogen rings in air, which the author thinks have not been correctly 

 explained in our text-books. The nearest approach to a correct expla- 

 nation is that given by Prof. Rogers in the American Journal of Science 

 for 1858 ; but his explanation, which is not very precise, is embarrassed by 

 conditions depending on the form of the orifice of the vessel from which 

 the ring was projected, the tension of the enclosed gas, the chemical 

 action, and, in the case of a liquid ring, the force with which the liquid is 

 projected into a column of water, &c. Very fine liquid rings can be formed 

 by allowing a saturated solution of common salt or of Epsom salts to drop 

 slowly into a tall column of water from a hight of about two inches. 

 The liquid rings thus formed roll rapidly round their curved axes, and go 

 on expanding nearly to the bottom of the vessel before they disappear. 

 Two ionic-like volutes are seen on either side of the rings; these are pro- 

 duced by the perspective of a number of rings seen through, or nearly 

 through, each other, while at the front and back the edges of single rings 

 only are seen. 



